Field of Ash and Bone
by SaiyanSoldier
Summary: The birth of Brolli. Intrigue, black magic, mercenaries and insurrections! Paragus's terrible story featuring Bardock and King Vegeta.
1. A Terrible Plan

**A Terrible Plan**

It begins with one man and his grief. The man's name was Paragus Chandon. Paragus was in his mind-twenties, and had spiked hair that rose into two points, like devil horns. But there was nothing devilish about Paragus. He was a quiet, reserved man who led a life of pastoral happiness. He owned an Inn in the town of Pistopon, North-western Permiat, near the Tersee District. It was a popular place, frequented by soldiers, and Paragus made good business out of it. He had young wife, Cochise and a tiny daughter, Mehetabel.

Paragus' happiness was shattered a few years after the end of the Saiyan-Tsufurun war, when Cochise became gravely ill with the Wasting Sickness and eventually died. Paragus had had a very quiet war, and had never experienced a loss like this before. He took it very badly. He lost all interest in life and could think of nothing but his dead wife, her eyes, the soft spikes of her hair. His life seemed to stretch out before him like a dark, meaningless desert. He felt like it would not be possible for him to feel happiness again. And what of poor little Mehetabel? How would the girl grow up with out a mother?

Paragus felt like nothing in his life was going right now his wife was gone. Three days after her burial, standing on the cold moors of Tersee, it occurred to him that if only he could somehow bring Cochise back to life, all his problems would be solved. From that moment the idea consumed him. It was an obsession.

He was sure there must be some way to bring a dead person back to life- there were stories about it, and wasn't it said that nothing was impossible with the power of the moon? But he reasoned it must be very hard- otherwise every grieving family would bring their loved ones back. And of course, they couldn't, because then there would be chaos. But he would be different. He had loved his wife in a way that was special; he was determined to bring her back. He was prepared to do anything.

The first place he went was the public library, taking two-year old Mehetabel with him. While she played with some coloured blocks, he studied the full edition of the _Book of the White Circle_. It contained many references to what happened to Saiyans after death, but had nothing to say on the subject of reversing death. It did have some lines on how death was natural and Saiyans went to the Third Place after they died, where they were happy. Paragus ignored these.

Finding nothing of help in the Holy Book, Paragus turned to the occult section. There were only five or six books there. They all had plenty of spells, charms and curses there, but nothing about reviving the dead. There were several warnings about taking metaphysical matters into one's own hands, which Paragus again ignored.

He cursed the benign nature of much of the magic. He knew there were several practitioners of the darker spells on the planet Vegeta, notably that scoundrel Bardock and the creepy woman he lived with. Occult practices were frowned on and some types of dark magic were illegal, but for the determined practitioner, there were a few grimoires out there. The problem was, most of them were in private collections.

Then he remembered the greatest book of Dark Magic of them all. The other book of Saiyan religion, the counterpoint to the _Book of the White Circle_- the book that described the Goddess in her darkest aspect, that included the most disturbing parts of moon-magic. The _Book of the Hollow Circle_. If any book on the whole planet had instructions for bringing the dead back to life, it would be this one.

But there was only one copy of this on the whole planet, and it was kept locked up somewhere in the King's palace, only brought out when it was desperately needed. There was no way Paragus would ever be able to see it. Sitting in the library, his face in his palms, he cursed the Saiyan King, the Starservants who had insisted only one copy be made of the book, and the culture that had made it inaccessible to virtually everyone. He hurried home in a huff, only glancing at the cemetery where his wife was buried on the way.

He sat at his desk the whole night, burning candle after candle, his mind going over everything he had read. The Goddess' magic seemed strongest when enforced by history. A spell was more likely to be successful if performed in an area where the same spell had worked before, or where a great battle had been won.

He thought once more about the stories of people being brought back to life. Most of the stories, he now realised, had been legends or novels, and there was nothing he could remember from History about someone being revived from the dead. Except for one thing, obviously. The story everybody knew.

King Vegeta the First had brought himself back from the dead by the force of his will to show his utter contempt for the Lords of the Universe. Everyone knew and celebrated this story of Saiyan defiance. No one else could have done such a thing. Paragus shook his sore head. That was precisely why the story was of no use to him. It was a description of a unique feat. Even to think about attempting it would be blasphemy. And besides, when King Vegeta had returned, he had immediately risen to the Third Place to be with the Goddess. He had not truly been brought back to life- rather, as the ancient tablets said; he had transcended Death and Life.

Cochise wouldn't be able to do that. She was just an ordinary woman, not an all-powerful demigod-King. Paragus sat back in his chair, thinking in wonder of the moment the King's corpse had become a living body again, of a pair of black eyes bursting open, full of life and rage.

He thought of the Field of Ash and Bones, a place he had been shown as a child and avoided ever since, where, according to the legend, King Vegeta's death and return to life had taken place. It was an enormous circle of ash and dead ground about fifty miles in diameter. Supposedly nothing had grown there for about seven thousand years. The atmosphere of the place had terrified him as a boy, and he had never returned, despite the fact it was only miles from his inn.

An evil thought stole across his mind.

Of course. Of all the places on the whole planet, that was the most perfect for bringing the dead back to life. If place really had that much of an effect on it, he'd have half his work cut out for him…


	2. Desecration

**Desecration**

But no one ever went to the Field of Ash and Bones. It was a forbidden place. Saiyans went to the edge and gazed across the wasteland, but no one ever so much as stepped on it. Even animals avoided crossing it. Birds wouldn't fly over it and no plants grew there. It was one of the biggest taboos on the whole planet. Paragus wasn't sure if there were actually laws about it, but he was sure he'd get in the biggest trouble imaginable if anyone saw him messing around there. He'd probably get beaten up, maybe even killed.

If he were to go there, he would have to go at night. Preferably a very dark, cloudy night. If he moved quickly, he could probably get away with it. No one looked across the Field of Ash and Bones expecting to see someone out there. He glanced at the calendar above his desk. Three days until Burning Night. Wasn't there supposed to be an extraordinary amount of magic in the air at that time of year? Dark magic, as well. If he got the time and the place right, all he would have to worry about would be the ritual itself. For he still had no idea how to carry it out.

He went back to the library the next day, and examined spells said to effect the healing of injuries. If someone could be brought from the brink of _near_ death… He asked his friend from Perelandra if he had anything on the occult, and it turned out Turles had a sensational but largely irrelevant tome called '_The Dark Goddess_', which nevertheless gave Paragus some useful information. It stated most moon magic required an offering, and the Goddess' particular favourite offering was blood and white flowers. It also said true magic was very rare and it always involved great sacrifice. Paragus mostly ignored this last part.

The next evening he was very tired, but he sat at his desk for an hour and contemplated the pressing problem of exactly what he was going to do at the Field of Ash and Bones. He would make the Goddess an offering of his blood, spilt over some white flowers. He would ask that his wife be brought back. But surely that would not be enough? Simple prayers required such an offering. Perhaps for something this big he should give something more. More blood, perhaps? Unbidden, the image of a cut out heart flew into his mind. Paragus shuddered. He couldn't possibly offer his own heart.

Once again, an evil thought entered his mind. It didn't _have_ to be his heart. Not that Paragus was contemplating murder. He was a quiet man, and anyway, he was sure the Goddess wouldn't appreciate the sacrifice of one of her children. He was thinking of Cochise's heart.

It certainly made sense. The magic would revive her heart, and her body would come back with it. Perhaps this was the secret contained in the _Book of the Hollow Moon_? He would bury the heart, make the offering, and perhaps, when he came back in the morning, his wife would be waiting for him. His exhausted head spinning with this plan, Paragus went to bed. He dreamed about the moon that night.

In the morning everything seemed different. It always does. He contemplated the plan he had made in rising horror. To dig up his wife's grave? To desecrate the most holy site on Vegeta? To try and bring the dead back to life? The whole thing seemed deeply blasphemous, and he was beginning to think it wouldn't work anyway. Perhaps it would be best to call it off, to pretend he hadn't even thought of it.

As Paragus put on his clothes these words made more and more sense. It was foolishness to try and bring the dead back, anyway. They were happy where they were. All the books said so.

His thoughts were interrupted by a strange noise from a few rooms away, a regular sobbing noise. It sounded like Mehetabel. He pulled on his shirt and walked to her room, which had once belonged to her mother.

'Mehta?' he called. He walked into the room to see his daughter, that brave, proud little girl, crying, her face red and swollen.

'Mummy's not coming back, is she?' Paragus froze in the centre of the room. For a minute he wondered if Mehetabel had somehow known what he was planning and now found out he had given up. But he shook these silly thoughts aside. She was just crying over her mother's death. He opened his mouth, wondering what to say.

'No child,' he said at last. 'I'm sorry.' It was best not to tell her what he was going to do, in case it didn't work and she was disappointed. Burning Night tomorrow. He had to act fast. He'd go to his wife's grave today, and tomorrow… tomorrow he'd do the thing he didn't have a name for.

It would be a good idea to ensure Mehetabel was out of harm's way while all this was going on. He took her down to his sister-in-law's house that morning, explained he had some crucially important business over the next few days.

The sister-in-law kept asking questions, wondering why he was leaving so close to Burning Night, but Paragus spun a story about a business trip to West Point. The sister-in-law seemed to believe it. She told him goodbye, and said it was a good thing he seemed to be getting over his grief- he had seemed almost insane the last time she had seen him.

This last word gave Paragus some pause, but he wasn't going to let it get in the way of his mission. Not by this stage.

He went straight to the public cemetery from there. His wife's grave was easy to find- he'd visited it so many times. Paragus suddenly felt sick. He couldn't do what he needed to do in broad daylight, when someone could appear at any time. In fact, he was beginning to doubt he could do it at all. He would have to dig up her grave, ruin her body- an act of desecration he couldn't possibly perform on someone he loved. He bit his lip, stiffening his resolve. He was doing this _for_ her. He'd have to come back tonight.

He went back and did some work at the inn he'd been neglecting so much lately, wandering from one minor task to another. Nothing could distract him from the immense anxiety he felt at the moment. The night that he was dreading seemed to approach with amazing rapidity. As the afternoon wore on he found himself spending most of his time staring at the wall feeling vaguely sick. He couldn't bear this suspense. He turned back to _The Dark Goddess_.

It was midnight, and the maroon-coloured sky was worryingly clear. Hundreds of crystalline stars and a reproachful waning moon watched Paragus as he stood above his wife's grave. He could feel their eyes upon him, watching him. He knew they were suns millions of miles away. But part of his brain kept telling him they were all the dead Saiyans, enthroned in the sky, watching him prepare for his great crime with disgust.

He brushed aside these fanciful thoughts. He wasn't going insane with grief. This was a proper plan, and it was going to work. Nevertheless, he felt slightly nauseous as he knelt and began to dig.

All Saiyans are strong, but Paragus was really quite below average for one of his kind in that respect. He had never been especially interested in fighting and training. He was a quiet, reserved man who had spent most of the Saiyan-Tsufurun war working in a small factory that made army supplies. Digging the huge clumps of earth and rocks was very hard work for him. It took him nearly an hour to scrape the first earth of the wooden surface of the coffin, sweat running in rivers down his back, and another two hours to uncover the whole surface.

As he looked at the panel of wood, a wave of nausea wracked his whole body. He leaned over the top of the hole he had dug, expecting to vomit onto the grass. Nothing came. He gripped his hands together, panting. He didn't want to do this next bit. But he had come this far.


	3. Horror

**Horror**

He wrenched off the coffin lid, trying not to look as he did so. Throwing the lid onto the ground next to the hole, he forced himself to contemplate what lay within.

It was Cochise, all right. She looked very different. It wasn't just the greying flesh, the beginnings of rot and the stomach-turning stench. Paragus had steeled himself for that. She had been dead for over two weeks now. It was her face. It was different from how he had remembered it, different from the photographs he had. Already, he had begun to forget her. Tears filled his eyes and his stomach churned with grief and the odour of death.

He knew what he had to do now. But balanced over the body of his dead wife, a knife in his back pocket, he felt he couldn't do it. She was beautiful, in spite of the rot and grey of her face. It was like she was only sleeping…

A small noise sent a jolt of terror through his entire body. He stumbled forward and nearly plunged into the grave with Cochise. Righting himself, he looked rapidly over the edge of the grave. There was no one in sight. He heard the noise again, a rapid, urgent creaking. It was only the branches of the ancient yew trees. Shivering, Paragus noticed for the first time how creepy it was in the graveyard at night. When he had arrived here he had been so preoccupied he had barely noticed anything. Now he saw the dark shadows of the other graves, the menacing figures of the statues, the empty spaces between the trees, dark and unfathomable…

Paragus was not a particularly cowardly man, but nor was he a brave one. The graveyard was frightening not only because of its ghoulishness, but because it reminded him how twisted what he was doing was. He heard Bardock's strange, rough voice in his head. '_Don't mess with the dead_.'

Once again, Paragus clenched his fists and pushed his doubts aside. The sooner he got this task over with, the sooner he could go home to his bed. He bent down over his wife's slender figure. He hesitated, and then pulled up the red shirt she was wearing. The flesh underneath was decaying. Paragus hesitated again. He didn't know where her heart was.

His hands were shaking badly now. He had to get this over with. He cut through the skin below her shoulders. Sticky, congealed black blood oozed from underneath. The stench suddenly grew much worse. He cut further down, peeling a flap of skin off. He was convulsed with nausea now, but it was less disgusting than it would have been in daylight. The dark blurred it into mostly grey. Where was her heart?

Wishing he were anywhere else in the entire universe, Paragus used his knife to pry the ribs on the left upwards. He had a vague memory of the heart being in that area. There was something that looked like a heart- a slick lump of smooth flesh amidst the ragged tissue and muscle. He used the knife to push the tissue aside. He couldn't bear to touch the stuff with his hands. _Why_ hadn't he worn gloves?

The shining lump could only be her heart. It was bigger than he had expected, veined and covered in arteries. Paragus cut through these, one by one, until he had severed it from her body. He nudged it along with his knife. It only travelled a few inches. Shaking with nausea, he realised he'd have to carry it back with his bare hands. With immense reluctance, he picked it up. It was sticky but smooth. He climbed out of the coffin, trembling with relief.

Paragus sat on the grass for he didn't know how long, dazed and ill. He idly glanced at his watch and then froze. It was more than five hours after he had arrived. It would be dawn soon! Then a terrible wave of guilt and fear washed over him. He vomited uncontrollably on the grass beside Cochise's headstone. Then a demonic energy filled him. Someone could be coming right now? How could he have thought to attempt such foolishness? He slammed the coffin lid over his wife's mutilated corpse and heaped the earth back over her. It took a ridiculously long amount of time. The earth would not flatten and it was still unconvincingly lumpy after he had spent nearly all his energy jumping on it. He realised with the grass gone, it would be obvious someone had tampered with the grave. But who would suspect him? And anyway, was what he had done really a crime?

He had to get out of here. He wrapped the heart up in the bottom of his shirt and sprinted away. He wasn't aware of where he was running and didn't stop until he got back to his inn. Disorientated, filthy and covered in gore, he staggered up to his room without anyone seeing him. The first thing he did was to shove the heart into his underwear drawer. Then he slumped onto the bed. He was exhausted. But he was also certain there were things he needed to do before he could allow himself to go to bed.

Paragus looked down at himself and realised for the first time he was covered in blood. Sickened, he ripped off his shirt and ran to the bathroom. He scrubbed himself with boiling water until all the filth had gone from his face and arms. He even pulled a few blood clots out of his hair. Fortunately, his clothes had protected the rest of his body. He stripped them off and put on a fresh set. He ran back to his room and shoved them into a cupboard corner. Sitting exhausted on the bed, he wondered if there were any other ways he could cover his tracks. He thought for a few minutes, and then was satisfied there were none. He lay back. He'd sleep today, in preparation for tonight. He was dead to the world in a minute.

It turned out no one connected the disturbance in the earth around Cochise's grave to Paragus. In fact, no one even noticed, though he had done a shoddy job of covering it up. No one connected it to the bloodstain on the handle of the door to the inn, which was attributed to a fight and quickly cleaned up. No one connected it with the landlord's deathlike sleep, either. The workers all assumed he was sick. Probably related to his grieving over his poor wife. He had been acting very odd lately. So Paragus slept the whole day undisturbed, missing the preparations for the night time festivities. He would need his rest for tonight.

He woke up at about seven o'clock in the evening and lay paralysed with fear at what he had done. He allowed himself to contemplate the possibility that it had all been a dream. Then he remembered his wife's heart, rotting in his chest of drawers. He dragged himself off the bed, walked across the room and opened the drawer. He shifted around a few pairs of socks. There it was, an abomination, rotting and revolting, stinking of the grave. He had a seconds-long flashback to cutting open Cochise's chest the night before. How had he managed to do that? The sight of this heart in front of him turned his stomach. And to think it had once been part of the beautiful Cochise, the most quick-witted woman he had ever known… This piece of flesh wasn't his wife, he thought miserably. He began to doubt more than ever this would work. Again he contemplated turning back, and again he saw the pained face of Mehetabel. He strengthened his resolution. Tonight was still on. It probably wouldn't be as horrible as last night, he reasoned.


	4. Blasphemy

**Blasphemy**

Paragus stared out at the deep-pink sky. He had slept through most of the day, but it was not yet dark. He wouldn't be able to do what he was going to do for hours. He wondered how he could pass the time now. He could go back to sleep, but he didn't feel tired anymore. And he certainly didn't want to join in the growing celebrations outside. He found that book. The _Dark Goddess_. He was going to read it properly and make sure he knew exactly what he was doing. If he messed this ceremony up, who knew what appalling could happen? He would be playing with immensely powerful forces tonight. He must above all be careful.

He fitfully skim-read, unable to concentrate. His eyes were drawn to the illustration, a burning tree. Though the tree was on fire, its branches were not damaged. This was a powerful symbol of the natural and the supernatural intertwined, an image common to nightmares. Shivering, Paragus got up and looked out of the window. The sun was beginning to descend in the sky, but the streets were still light. Children walked by, holding sparklers and torches, laughing brightly. He thought briefly of Mehetabel. Turning to the book again, Paragus flicked through a few pages. The letters might as well have been written in Namek. Admitting defeat, Paragus lay on the bed. Perhaps he'd just rest for a few minutes…

He opened his eyes a few minutes later and looked up at the clock. It was half past nine. He must have been more tired than he had imagined. He slipped off the bed and looked outside. It was completely dark now, though the night was lit with distant bonfires. He should wait at least another hour. People would still be awake, but they would be distracted with celebrating. Now would be far too early, though. He would attract attention.

Paragus' mind went once more to the nightmarish thing in his underwear drawer. Unwilling but unable to stop himself, he went and looked at it again. It did not strike him as horrible this time. It was simply a piece of old flesh, the same as you could get in a butcher's shop. It was so old and wormed anyone who sold it would have been prosecuted, true, but the heart wasn't in particularly bad condition considering. Paragus picked it up gently. Small traces of blood came off on his hands. He wrapped it in some paper.

Preparation, that's what he should be doing now. He needed a silver knife, and some white flowers. Sword lilies were said to be particularly sacred to the Goddess. He would go out and pick some now. As for the silver knife, he had several in his inn, though they had wooden handles. He wasn't sure if that made them less sacred.

He slipped through the streets, trying not to be noticed by the groups of revellers who occasionally walked past. No one paid him any attention, and a thickset soldier elbowed him in the stomach apparently without realising he was there. Paragus passed several shrubberies until he found one that contained what he was looking for- a bank of white sword lilies, pointing directly at the moon.

Paragus glanced down the street- some people thought these flowers were too sacred to be picked. Two young women loitered at the far corner, talking rapidly. He waited a few minutes and they were gone. Seizing two flowers by the stalks, he uprooted them. He didn't think quantity would be an issue. He pushed them under his shirt and hurried back.

Bringing the flowers back to the empty inn, he found a silver knife, checking the hallmark. He placed the knife, flowers and heart on his bedside table. He noted with some pride they looked like the materials of a true magician, no posing here. He checked the clock again. It was now ten past ten. It would take him about twenty minutes to reach the Field of Ash and Bones if he walked. He should wait.

At half past the hour the pain and stress of waiting grew two much for Paragus. He placed the things in a small bag and headed for the door. Standing in the frame, he froze. What if the spell had to be performed at an auspicious time? Midnight would surely be most appropriate. After all, he had to get everything right for Cochise. Cursing, Paragus sat down again.

Paragus waited, grinding his teeth and pacing around the room, until the clock showed eleven. Then he got up, winding his watch and making sure it was at precisely the right time. He'd set off early- who knew how long it would take him to reach the centre of the Field of Ash and Bones?

The streets were almost deserted by now and he exited Pistopon rapidly. Soon Paragus was in Tersee, striding over the moonlit moors, wearing a black robe with a red armband. He pulled his robe around him. The air was clear, sharp and cold. He thought wishfully of the bright bonfires that would be burning all around the planet Vegeta, but shook his head. Next year, if this were successful, he'd celebrate Burning Night with Cochise.

The grass was silvery blue under the moon and the shadows were long and clearly defined. In spite of Paragus' hopes, this night looked as clear as last. There was no one in sight, but he could not help but feel an increasing nervousness as neared the forbidden Field of Ash and Bones. He hadn't come here for years. Even the name of the place made him edgy.

Paragus saw the line of conifers that stood around the as he reached the top of a small hill. They were drawn of colour by the dark and there was something distinctly and tangibly sinister about them. To Paragus they looked evil, like a line of accusing words, or dark swords. His racing mind brought up the comparison of a line of soldiers guarding the field. They reminded him that there were many people who would say he should not be here at all.

The dark trees grew larger as Paragus walked, and so did his fear. He tried to soothe himself with reasonable arguments. He was doing this all for Cochise, he told himself. He'd see her again soon. And besides, whatever happened tonight would not be nearly as last night's trip around the graveyard. An involuntary memory of the moment he had ripped off the coffin lid made Paragus' eyelid twitch.

He was standing in front of those pines now. They towered above him, their branches moving soundlessly in the wind. There were deep shadows by their trunks and Paragus felt convinced every piece of darkness hid a pair of eyes. But he could not turn back. He was no coward.

He pushed through the trees, their cold branches brushing against him, and all too soon was on the other side. A tiny bank of grass separated him from the vast expanse in front of him. The Field of Ash and Bones. It seemed even bigger than he remembered it, stretching out as far as he could see in front and to either side. It was simply an open plane of sand or ash, without a single plant growing in it, without as much as a rock to detract from its monotonous flatness. It was out of place in this land of moors and forests, distinctly unnatural- supernatural. Paragus looked on in awe and fear. There was a strange beauty in the desolation of this place.

He checked his wind-up watch. In twenty minutes, it would be midnight. He should set off. He didn't know how long it would take him to reach the centre. But he did not set off. Instead, he stood motionless on the grass bank at the side of Field of Ash and Bones. Paragus was afraid.


	5. Ash and Bone

**The Field of Ash and Bone**

He had feared this place as a child, when he had known almost nothing about it. Now he had spent a whole lifetime hearing of the ancient taboos attached to this place. How a young woman had stumbled over the edge while leaning too close and died insane a few months later. How even the Tsufuruns had refused to fly their helicopters over the place. Perhaps there was nothing mystic about this place. Perhaps it was simply that it was full of deadly radiation, and that's why nothing grew there. Or perhaps the curse really was real… Paragus could not only fail in his mission, but lose his life as well.

He remained on the bank. He had to get up the courage to take that first step, to break the taboo. It was for Cochise, he desperately reminded himself. He was doing this all for Cochise. Paragus looked over the edge of the bank. Then he closed his eyes and stepped forwards.

He stumbled as he stepped, falling to his hands and knees on the ash, the bag falling with a bump at his side. The temperature seemed to suddenly drop. He crouched there with his eyes closed, feeling a painful wave of terror. He was touching the sacred ash. His bare hands were touching it! Paragus stood up rapidly. He felt horribly exposed, unspeakably blasphemous. His first instinct was to run back to the bank, but with all the will he could summon up he mastered the impulse. He stared ahead of him, to the wasteland of deadness.

Paragus went forth, running slightly, aghast at what he was doing. He tried to banish all thought from his mind but horrible suggestions kept presenting themselves to him. Was this not the greatest act of blasphemy ever committed by a Saiyan? And yet he was asking the Goddess for a favour. It seemed ludicrous.

He walked quickly, trying not to look around too much. The ground was unnaturally flat, flatter than stone, and walking on it was easy. Paragus began to doubt this field was composed of ash, as the legends said- it was not nearly as soft as ash, and each footstep caused a small crunching noise. Paragus gave in and looked around, but he saw nothing but pale grey ground underneath the moonlight. This place was unmarked in every way. It was disconcerting.

Paragus checked his watch again. He had wasted ten minutes. He started to walk faster. It was easier if he ran. Fear gave him strength and the nervous thoughts were pushed to the sides of his mind as the sand flashed underneath him. He ran more and more swiftly, his feet crunching against the strange ground. The air began to sing in his ears. Within a few minutes, he was at the centre. He felt fairly sure of this. Saiyans have a very good sense of direction.

Paragus checked his watch yet again. It was three minutes to midnight. He dropped his bag and stared up at the sky. A large cloud had appeared, though not large enough to obscure the reproachful moon. Paragus shuddered. The feeling of exposure, that he was doing something innately and horribly wrong, stole over him again.

Paragus looked around him- the edges of the plain were only just visible. He was surrounded by the flat, unchanging ground. He looked beneath his feet. He could see a piece of jewelled gold glinting quite close by, something that might have been a buckle or bracelet. He knew better than to try and pick it up. He tried to ignore it.

He pushed the feeling aside with great firmness. There could be no hesitation now. This was the moment of truth. He unzipped the little bag.

Paragus pulled out first the heart, then the flowers, slightly crushed, then the silver knife. He laid them all on the ground. He kicked the bag to one sight, feeling it was disrupting the purity of the ritual. He wished there was somewhere he could stow it away.

The seconds were ticking past. There was not much time left now. Paragus picked up his wife's heart and buried it in the strange earth at the centre of the Field of Ash and Bones. The earth, or sand or ash, was very dry to touch, and stuck to his skin like powder. He scattered the flowers over the top of the heart.

Now the part he feared most. He stood erect over the disturbed ground and looked directly into the moon. He put the point of the knife to the crook of his thumb on his left palm. Biting his lip, he drew it across.

In his nervousness, Paragus cut deeper than he should have. The tip of the knife brushed something that may have been bone and pain seared from the wound. Blood dropped heavily to the ground, staining the flowers and seeping into the earth. Its red colour was vivid even in the moonlight, supernaturally bright.

Grasping his wrist in pain and shock, Paragus felt tears of pain come into his eyes. The blood had hit the ground- was it too soon? He checked his watch. The hand reached midnight even as he looked. Too soon, but only just. He let a bit more blood fall on the ground to try and make up for it.

The pain was far worse than he had imagined it to be, and his head was cloudy with mingled thrill and agony. He knew he would have to say a prayer now, but he seemed to have forgotten the one he put together and words were not coming easily to him.

'Oh please,' he said, the loudness of his voice worrying him. 'Oh _please_.' Then he gripped his left hand in his right and fled.

He moved across the Field of Ash and Bones as lightly as a shadow. He was only aware of the ground pounding underneath his feet, and then he was lying on the grassy bank, cradling his wounded hand. Blood was still flowing from it and the pain seemed to be getting worse. He wondered if he had really damaged himself. Weren't there supposed to be veins in your hands? Paragus cursed himself. This would never have happened if he hadn't been so afraid.

He tore a strip of fabric from his robe and awkwardly tied it around his hand. The blood continued to seep through the black fabric, soaking it. Paragus got to his feet. He could not linger in this place. Holding another piece of fabric to his hand, he staggered through the pines and headed out into the moors beyond. Standing in the cold night air, Paragus realised that his whole body was drenched in sweat. His shirt was stuck to his back like wet lettuce. He was freezing cold, and his hand was emitting a regular throb. He thought of Cochise. If this worked, tomorrow he would see Cochise.

But as he walked back towards Pistopon, the pain in his hand a regular throb, the cold wind a torment, what he had done seemed appalling, ludicrous, an act of insanity. Staggering away from the Field of Ash and Bone, Paragus wondered if he really had gone mad with grief. The events of the last few days seemed like an enormous folly, and for the first time Paragus wished he had never thought to turn to Dark Magic.

He had to pull himself together. The inn, once a prosperous business, was falling apart because of him. He knew everyone thought he was losing his mind. Maybe, somehow, he could draw himself back from the brink, forget madness like this. He had Mehetabel to worry about. He would have to pick her up tomorrow. Paragus shuddered at what his sister-in-law would think if she found out about this whole escapade.

An hour later he finally let himself back into the inn. He tiptoed up the stairs and let himself into his room. Inspecting his wound by candlelight, he was relieved to see that the blood had stopped flowing. He washed it, wrapped a fresh bandage around it and went to bed.


	6. The Child

**The Child**

Paragus woke at dawn and for a few seconds contemplated the light filtering through his window with happiness. Then he remembered the night before. He lay paralysed on his bed. It felt like a cross between his birthday and the worst day of his life. The acts he had committed over the last few days seemed even more like lunacy now. He could scarcely believe he had gone through with it all. But he had the wound on his hand as proof. It had healed up now, leaving an enormous itchy red scab. It would probably become a scar.

Paragus sat up in his bed. His wife could be alive right now. She could be waking up in the Field of Ash and Bone, wondering where she was. He would have to go to her. He should be there already. But what if she wasn't there? What if there was just a bloodstain and a few white petals? What would that make him?

Swallowing a wave of nausea, Paragus realised he hadn't eaten in over forty-eight hours. Saiyans are Saiyans. Before he made any moves, he would have a good breakfast. His employees turned to stare at him as he sat down at the table in the hall.

'I've been sick,' he mumbled. They nodded. Paragus tucked into four bowls of porridge and a small goat, laced his boots and set off. He'd go to the Field, see what was there, and then he'd go and pick up Mehetabel.

The moors of Tersee looked very different in the daylight. The grass was a cheerful shade of bright blue, and swallows danced in the air. Even the line of dark conifers didn't look so sinister, more like a line of shabby trees. But as he pushed past them and looked out into the Field of Ash and Bone, it looked every bit as scary as it had done the night before. The grey sand, or whatever it was, looked as dull as it had done in darkness. Paragus squinted across the plain. He could not see anything.

He knew what he would have to do if he wanted to know the truth, but he didn't like the idea at all. This would be his third act of insane taboo breaking in as many days. The desire to end the whole matter once and for all made him bold. He resolutely put a booted foot to the pale dust and marched across the field. For as second time, it seemed to grow much colder as he stepped off the bank.

It was no easier to cross the place in daylight. In fact, it was harder. Anyone could be watching him now. What would they think if they saw his lone figure stalking the field? Perhaps they'd think he was King Vegeta the First, returned from the dead. Paragus smirked at this thought, and then bit his tongue. He'd had enough blasphemy over the last few days to last him a lifetime.

As Paragus neared the centre of the field, he noticed a strange thing sticking out of the sand in the distance. It looked like a warped tree. But nothing could grow in this place… A mixture of fear and nausea rising in his gut, Paragus began to run.

He grew closer, and he realised it was a tree, a strange, stunted leafless black thing. He was sure this could not be anything good. Paragus neared the centre, and noticed something else about the tree. One of its spindly branches held a single fruit.

Paragus found himself standing next to this tree, staring at its bent branch. It was one of the ugliest things he'd seen in his life, barring his wife's decaying corpse. The trunk was leathery and twisted, and the branches short and pointy. It did not look like a living thing. The largest branch was weighed down with what he could only describe as a fruit, an enormous ball of reddish-orange. It was twice as big as Paragus' head and covered with thick veins. It emitted a pale glow.

Paragus shuddered at the site of the tree. What in the name of the Goddess was this monstrosity? Had he created it? And if he had, what was he supposed to do now?

A slow, sickening realisation stole over him. Whatever this was, it was not Cochise. His plan to bring his wife back from the dead had failed. Instead he had created a kind of demon tree, bearing a single revolting fruit. He stared at the tree, the blight on this place, hating it. How could he have done something like this? How could he have ripped Cochise's heart from her body? How could he have desecrated this most sacred of places, the Field of Ash and Bone?

Sickened, afraid and furious, Paragus gave the tree a vicious kick. It shook, and the red fruit fell to the ground. Instantly, the stubby tree twisted into itself and disappeared into the ground, vanishing utterly. Paragus watched this new marvel, uncertain whether he should be interested or terrified.

He bent down and examined the strange fruit. He dared not touch it, but only knelt with his face a few feet away from its tough, leathery surface. What was this thing? Had he created it? Was it the egg of a monster, about to destroy the world for his foolish mistake? Paragus shuddered at the thought. It could very well be true. Perhaps he should leave. But what of this fruit, or egg? He couldn't just leave it here. Loath as he was to admit it, it was his responsibility.

Without warning the red sphere moved, a sudden twitch to the right. Paragus stared, unwilling to believe. The sphere remained still. Paragus tried to rationalise what he had just seen. Perhaps it had been the wind. The sphere twitched again, and again. Paragus took a step back, afraid, not knowing what to do. The sphere was rolling around in small circles on the ground. Suddenly, Paragus knew what it looked like- an egg that was about to hatch. He didn't want to see what was going to come out.

In confirmation of this nightmarish thought, the surface of the sphere began to split. The split grew longer and wider, rending the red sphere in half, warping it out of shape. There was something inside, forcing its way into the world. A little hand poked through the circle. It was an ordinary, pale brown, five-fingered hand. Paragus watched this grotesque display, unable to turn away.

Whatever were inside the egg thing struggled some more, and finally a small, slimy creature pulled its way out onto the sand. Paragus, who had been expecting scales or horns, stared at it in wonder.

It was a Saiyan baby.

It lay on the dust, small, wet and helpless, staining the ground with the slime that covered its body. It was pale and naked, with a mop of dark spiky hair. Paragus just stood and stared at the creature, unable to believe what he was seeing. He had imagined unspeakable horrors, and in front of him was a tiny child. He felt massively relieved and slightly wrong-footed. At his feet, unnoticed, the remains of the red fruit shrivelled, turned black, and disappeared.

Paragus knelt over the baby, uncertain what to do now. Surely he should take this child to a safe place, give it food and clothes. But what kind of creature was it? It had hatched from the egg, or fruit, or whatever it was, right before his eyes. The manner of its birth suggested that the child was a plant rather than a person. Could this child be the monster he had seen in his darkest imaginings minutes ago? It couldn't be, he told himself. It was a baby, not a monster. And babies couldn't be monsters.

Paragus reached down and touched the baby's back. It was wet with slime, a kind of plant afterbirth. The baby let out a slight mewing noise at his touch. He turned it over, noticing two things as he did so; first it was sticky and dirty from the ashy ground. Second, it was a male child. Paragus dug his hands in his pockets until he found a leftover cloth from bandaging his wound last night. He wiped the sand and slime off the baby, who squirmed irritably. Then he picked the baby up, wrapped him in his over shirt, and held him to his chest. Like a sword, the child was heavier than he expected. Paragus took one last look around him, wondering at the absence of any trace of the tree or fruit, and then set off out of there. The baby nestled close to him, placing a tiny hand on his neck. It seemed to have a very strong grip for a newborn.

What was this child? He had come from the tree. And the tree had come from the ritual Paragus had performed last night. There could be no question of that- it was too much of a coincidence. If Paragus had created the tree, the child too must have been the result of the ritual he performed. His attempt to revive his wife from the dead had failed. But he had created life, in the form of this child.

Paragus held up the boy and examined him. In a way, he was his son. His and Cochise's son, that is. Her heart, and his blood, and the white flowers and the magic of the Field of Ash and Bones. The child was his son. He had a son.

'You're my son,' he said to the baby, who looked up at him with dark, bright eyes. Paragus felt both more confused than he had done at any point over the last week and more stable. He had a new baby. But the child had been borne as a result of a series of actions Paragus still could not believe he had carried out.

Paragus stepped out of the Field of Ash and bones, greatly relieved to be out of there. He would never break the taboo again, never even come by here. He didn't want to even hear the name of this place again.

He tried to distract himself from his sombre and fearful thoughts by turning to his son.

'You've got to have a name, you know,' he said to the child. 'I guess I'll be the one to name you.' The baby stared up at him with his bright eyes, fascinated. 'What could be the right name for a child like you? You're a very strange little boy. You don't have a mother. You weren't even born. You dropped off a tree! I bet there isn't another boy like you anywhere in the world. So you should have a special name.'

Ascending a low hill, Paragus checked the surrounding wilds. He had crossed the Field in a great hurry and he wasn't sure if anyone had seen him. But there was no one around now. He'd been lucky. He bit his lip. He would never take a chance like this again.

Paragus turned his attention back to his son.

'What shall I call you? How about Vegeta? You were found in the place the original King Vegeta returned to life, weren't you? But no, there are too many nasty men with that name. How about Peppa? No, it's too silly. Or Korn? No, I don't like that one either. I had a friend called Turles who went away. Maybe I should name you after him. But you're _not_ a Turles. He was always angry about something, and you're so happy. Your little eyes look so bright and expectant. Why don't I call you Brolli? That means bright, you know. Yes, I think that fits. You're Brolli.'

Brolli squeaked in happiness and buried his spiky head in Paragus' neck. Paragus held him close and smiled as Pistopon loomed into sight. Whatever he had done wrong over the last few days, whatever judgement awaited him, he could not regret what he had done. The child, with his bright eyes and soft skin, destroyed the possibility of regret.


	7. Consequence

**Consequence**

Paragus found out very fast that a widower who suddenly acquires a newborn baby is going to be asked questions. He went straight to his sister-in-law's house as soon as he had left the Field of Ash and Bone, holding Brolli in his arms. The first thing she asked him, before she even said 'Hello,' was,

'Where did you get that baby?' Paragus couldn't tell her the truth, so he went for the lie that seemed simplest.

'I found him,' he said. 'By the side of the road. He must have been abandoned by his parents.'

The sister-in-law, who was called Kellery, leaned in and stared at the baby.

'What are you going to do with it?' she asked.

'I'm going to look after him,' he said without thinking. Then he paused. 'I'll ask around for his parents, of course. But if they abandoned him, they probably won't want anything to do with him. So I'll bring him up.'

'But Paragus,' Kellery said. 'Do you really think you'll be able to bring up this baby on your own?'

'I've got Mehetabel, haven't I?' he asked defensively. He hadn't thought that his right to bring up this child might be contested.

'Exactly,' she said. 'You've already got your hands full. Don't you think the child would be far better off in a family?'

'I- I found him,' Paragus said uncertainly.

Kellery shook her head. 'Its parents might still want it,'

'_Him_,' Paragus said quickly. 'His name's Brolli.' Kellery sighed.

'Paragus, I know you're going through a lot at the moment, but you can't just pick a baby up off the roadside and call it your own,' she said slightly patronisingly. 'You've become much too attached to this child. You've already given him a name. You probably won't be allowed to keep him.'

Paragus stepped back from her, holding Brolli protectively. 'But he's my son!' he protested. 'Look at him!'

'He does look a little like you,' Kellery said, squinting at him. 'Even a little like poor Cochise. But a child needs a mother.'

'You can't take this child away from me,' Paragus snapped, his desperation rising. 'Now where's Mehetabel? I'm going.' A small head appeared from behind Kellery's legs. A little girl with long, stringy hair looked up at him.

'Daddy,' she said. 'Why are you holding a baby?'

'This is your new baby brother, Brolli,' he said, looking down at her uncertainly. Mehetabel stared in shock.

'You didn't say I was going to have a brother!' she said, scandalised.

'Well- I didn't know.'

'Does he have a mother?'

'No, he doesn't,' Paragus said quickly, and then paused. 'Well- no, he doesn't. Not really.'

Mehetabel shrugged. She was only two and a half years old. 'How old is he?'

'About one day.'

'How do you know that, Paragus?' Kellery asked.

'He just looks very new,' Paragus said vaguely.

'He doesn't look very new to me,' Kellery said. 'He looks quite strong for such a little baby. Look, he's holding his head up all by himself. I'd say he's six months old at least.'

Paragus looked down at Brolli. He hadn't considered it before, but Mehetabel hadn't been able to lift her head up until she was two months old, but Brolli seemed to be having no problems with it. Yet Paragus had seen him being born- well, sort of- that very morning.

'Can I hold him?' Kellery asked. Paragus stopped, looked down at the child, looked over at her and shrugged.

'I suppose so,' he said reluctantly. 'Be careful with him.' He passed the baby over to her. She picked him up and held him close to her shoulder, his little hand grasping the fabric of her shirt.

'See?' she said. 'He can support himself very well. And he's very heavy as well. He's definitely not a newborn. He must be at least- _hey_! Stop that!' Brolli had tried to suckle from her. She pulled him back, looking mortified.

'He must be very hungry,' she said, struggling to sound casual. 'I'll try and find some milk.'

Paragus watched, his face reddening. Somehow he had forgotten that babies must be fed. How long would it have been before he had remembered to feed little Brolli? Feeling awkward, he followed Kellery into the kitchen, Mehetabel trailing in their wake. Perhaps he really couldn't bring the child up on his own. Men couldn't breast-feed, after all.

However, Paragus could barely contemplate the idea of leaving Brolli with someone else. The boy _was_ his son, not an abandoned baby he had found by the roadside. He sat on a wooden chair in the kitchen and watched Kellery boil some goat's milk. He could do _that_. He could change the baby's clothes. He could even change its nappies, hellish a task as that was. How hard could raising this child be?

Kellery showed Paragus how to feed the baby without choking it, and it turned out Brolli was skilled in the art of projectile vomiting. She even found some baby clothes left over from the childhood of her own son, now fifteen and living in a boarding school. Brolli ended up wearing a little suit that had once been black but was now a very dark grey. Paragus thanked his sister-in-law profusely and headed home, feeling distinctly worried about the next few weeks.

His fears turned out to have been justified. The next few days were a nightmare. It wasn't, however, as bad as it could have been. Brolli was a rather well behaved child, hardly ever crying an only occasionally retching all over Paragus' clothes, but Paragus had forgotten how physically exhausting raising a very small child could be- waking up at all hours of the night, changing nappies, warming goat's milk. It was time consuming and physically demanding. The introduction of solid foods into Brolli's diet only made things worse. With constantly explaining where the child had come from, looking after Mehetabel and the upkeep of the inn to worry about as well, Paragus was greatly preoccupied for most of the day and night. It was amazing he got any rest at all.

But while Paragus was up to his ears in baby vomit, other problems were brewing. He had been careless on the morning he had found the tree. He had wandered onto the Field of Ash and Bone without even looking around to see if he was being watched. And unfortunately, someone had been glancing at the conifers at that moment he had emerged.

The Field of Ash and Bones was watched by a Starservant, a lonely woman named Auba who lived in a tower on the Tersee moor. Her duties was to prevent anyone from crossing the Field of Ash and Bone, but most importantly just to watch the field, to monitor it for any kind of change. It was a sacred site and required a guardian and scribe. The job, unfortunately, was excruciatingly boring, but Auba liked being out on the lonely moor, free to think and to watch the animals and plants.

Preoccupied with the rites of Burning Night, Auba had managed to entirely miss Paragus' shocking act of desecration. On the morning afterwards, she had, however, looked out of the tower window and caught a glimpse of a dark figure walking across the sand of the field, cutting through the conifers and disappearing over a hill.

Auba's first reaction had been shock. Not only had she never seen anyone break the taboo and cross the field, but she had never even heard of anyone doing so before. There was not a single historical record of something like this happening. It was the most outrageous thing she had ever witnessed. She stood by the window, reeling with a horror that slowly changed to fury. Who was this stranger? How dare they do this, an act of desecration such as had never been committed before? She pulled on her shoes and ran out of the tower.

Unfortunately, by the time Auba reached the hilltop the stranger was nowhere in sight. She scanned the moor all around her but whoever had crossed the Field of Ash and Bones seemed to have left the area fairly fast. Angrily, Auba brought down her right foot. Perhaps they had disappeared, she told herself, evaporated as a punishment for the terrible thing they had done.


	8. Appeal

**Appeal**

Auba turned back to the Field itself. She would go over to the edge, inspect it for damage, see if the criminal had left any clues. For he or she was a criminal, Auba told herself. She was sure there were applicable laws against entering the Field of Ash and Bone.

Auba stood on the grassy bank and saw straight away that the stranger had left one memento of his visit. Footprints- a long row of deep footprints in the ash, leading straight to the centre of the field. Auba cursed whoever had done this under her breath. Looking closer, she realised there were four rows of footprints, two heading towards the centre, two away from it. This person must have made two journeys. Briefly, Auba considered whether she should follow the footprints to see if the person had interfered with the centre of the field in any way, but she decided against it. Not even a Starservant could cross this place.

Auba sighed and looked back across to the tower on the horizon. What was she to do now? Her training had been rather sketchy on the subject of what to do if someone actually _crossed_ the field, probably because no one had ever expected that to happen. She supposed she must find the culprit, and bring him to the law. They would punish him. Auba was sure it _was_ a him by now. She could see him now, squat and lantern-jawed, his face twisted with greed and stupidity. Perhaps he'd been after the ancient fragments of King Vegeta the First's crown, which were said to scatter the field. Auba shuddered at his greed. Then she turned northeast and began to walk. The nearest Starservant was only twenty miles from here.

The nearest Starservant was a young man with large glasses and a worried expression named Tuss. When Auba described to him what had happened, he sat staring at her, open-mouthed, for nearly five minutes. Then he got her to repeat the whole thing, and when it had all sunk in he sat with his head in his hands. Auba watched him for a while and then asked,

'What do you think we should do now?'

'Do?' he said. 'I don't know.'

'Neither do I,' Auba said gloomily.

'You say you didn't recognise this person?'

'I only saw them from a distance,'

'We'll have to talk to the King,' said Tuss. 'Maybe he'll be able to find them.'

'Yes,' Auba said. 'There are laws, aren't there?' The two Starservants nodded thoughtfully. The law was not something they had anything to do with in the course of their daily lives. Saiyans are generally ruled by unwritten codes and local leaders, and central government had little control of most people's lives, but for serious indiscretions there was always the threat of the law. With any luck, this evildoer would be punished. It was not really the usual practice on the planet Vegeta to report all crimes directly to the King, but these Starservants were somewhat isolated from society.

'I'll set of tomorrow morning,' said Auba. 'I don't feel like going all the way to Perelandra today.'

'I'll go with you,' Tuss promised.

The next day the two Starservants met at sunrise, rent a cart to the seafront and rode in a boat to Perelandra. The trip was exhausting and Tuss unfortunately got seasick on the way, but their outrage at what had happened kept them going. They walked to the great city of Mondborg, with its towering white buildings and rows of Red Blossom trees. The palace was easy to find- it was on a wooded hill in the centre of the city, towering over all the other buildings, enormous, yet celestial and delicate.

Auba and Tuss reluctantly approached one of the burly guards by the gate.

'We need to speak to the King,' Auba said.

'Really?' the guard grunted, rolling his eyes slightly. 'And who are you?'

'I'm Auba Peppercorn, and this is Tuss Skaya,' she said.

'No,' the guard groaned. 'I mean, who _are_ you? What do you do?'

'We're Starservants,' Tuss said, stepping forwards. 'We need to speak to the King. It's a matter of great importance.'

'Yeah, I'll bet,' the guard smirked. 'Tell me; just what is this matter of grave importance?'

'The Field of Ash and Bone,' Auba said urgently. 'Someone's interfered with the Field of Ash and Bone.'

'The what, now?' asked the guard, squinting. Auba and Tuss stared in horror.

'You know, the Field of Ash and Bone,' Tuss said desperately. 'It's in the Tersee district. No one's allowed to go there. It's an enormous field, covered with…'

'Ash and Bone?' asked the guard.

'Yes! It's all dead. No animals will cross there. No plants grow there. It's the most sacred place on the planet.'

'I've never heard of it,' the guard said. The two Starservants stared in horror. The guard's counterpart, a slightly taller man, leaned over from the other side of the gate.

'The Dead Place, Zaron!' he yelled. 'They're talking about the Dead Place! Don't you remember? Those priest people who came to visit were talking about it just last week. Where King Vegeta the First…'

'Oh, yes, the _Dead Place_,' Zaron said. 'Why didn't you just say so in the first place? I mean, the Field of Ash and Bone? The Dead Place is a much better name. So what were you saying about the Dead Place?'

'Someone walked across it,' Auba said. 'I saw them with my own eyes.'

'So?' Zaron asked.

'Nobody's allowed to walk on it, idiot!' yelled the other guard, leaning across.

'_Shut up_!' Zaron snarled. 'I knew that. So someone walked across it. And now I guess this guy's going to be cursed.'

'He might be,' Auba said, increasingly angry at the man's flippancy. 'We don't know. No one's ever crossed the Field of Ash and Bone before, as far as I know.'

'How did you find out about this, anyway?' Zaron asked.

'I saw him,' Auba said. 'I'm the guardian of the Field of Ash and Bone.'

'Did a good job of that one, didn't you?' Zaron said lightly. Auba bristled.

'Leave her alone!' Tuss said. 'You don't seem to understand. This is really, really important. Who knows what damage this person could have wreaked? We need to talk to the King.

'Alright,' Zaron said. Tuss stood up straighter, starting to smile. 'You can go in and talk to the King. Tell him this story about someone messing around with the Field of Ass and Bone, and then after that, you know what? You can tell him that the sky is falling.' Zaron burst out laughing then, smacking his hand against the stone of the wall. The other guard chuckled into his hands. But Tuss and Auba stood before the gates, looking furious.

'I don't believe this,' Auba said. 'You're acting like this whole thing's a joke.' Just at that moment a woman with hair that fell in spikes to her knees walked down the path and out of the gates. She looked quizzically at Zaron and his colleague, still laughing, and at Auba and Tuss, and asked,

'What's going on here?'

'Lady Tommo?' asked Tuss, looking closely at her.

'Yes,' she said. 'What are you Starservants doing here? What does he think is so funny?'

'Lady,' Auba said quickly. 'We need to speak to the King urgently. The Field of Ash and Bone- I mean the Dead Place- has been desecrated.'

'_What_?' Tommo said, her heavily outlined eyes widening. 'The Field of Ash and Bone desecrated? Who by?' The guards seemed to be calming down now that they could see her taking it seriously. Zaron straightened up, looking embarrassed.

'I don't know,' Auba said. 'I only saw him walking away. It looked like a man.'

'What did he do?' asked Tommo.

'Walked on the Field of Ash and Bone,' Auba replied.

'And?'

'That's it, as far as we know,'

'But I thought you said the Field had been desecrated!' Tommo said irritably.

'Even to walk on it is desecration, Lady,' Tuss said in outrage.

'Yes, I know that,' Tommo sighed. 'But I really don't think that's reason enough to personally approach the King.' She glanced up at the high white walls with a gloomy expression.

'We know he's busy,' said Tuss. 'But this is important.'

'Yeah, we know it's important,' Zaron chipped in. 'You said so. About a million times.'

'Oh, shut up,' Tommo snapped. 'Look, you two Starservants- what did you say your names were?'

'They're Auba and Tuss,' Zaron butted in again.

'Auba and Tuss, just ignore these _idiots_,' the guards cried out in protest. 'I'll take you to the King. He's interested in the Goddess and that kind of thing. He'll probably listen to you.' She turned on the heel of one of her heavy, metal studded boots and hurried up the path that lead to the palace.

The two Starservants hesitated a few moments, and then raced up the hill after her. The road through the palace gardens was steep and narrow, and the air was heavy with the scent of Red Blossoms. Tommo walked swiftly and Auba in particular struggled to keep up with her. It took them nearly twenty minutes to reach the magnificent set of steps that led to the palace. Tommo walked up these like she had every right in the world to be here. Tuss and Auba nervously stuck behind her and the bored-looking guard at the door let her in with barely a nod of his head.


	9. History

**History**

They walked into an enormous room, the walls bedecked with paintings of various historical Saiyans. The whole place was swarming with people, mostly secretaries running around holding sheaves of paper and soldiers standing in tight groups talking to each other in whispers. Tommo bypassed them all and headed into a hallway on the right. They went through several more rooms, each magnificently decorated, each full of people. The Starservants hurried behind her, getting knocked into several times. They climbed several staircases and walked what seemed like miles of corridor until they found themselves walking through empty rooms, only occasionally passing someone. Finally, when the tired Starservants felt they could walk no longer, Tommo approached a huge wooden door.

Somewhere behind the door, a man with a loud voice and a thick Permiat accent was talking.

'So obviously I asked him who the mother was, and- you're not going to believe this-'

Tommo pushed the heavy door open. Two men were standing by a window talking. Auba recognised the tall man straight away, even though she'd never seen him before in her life. It was the King. He looked just like he did in the newspapers and on the back of the coins, his hair reaching for the sky, a slight smile on his face. He was looking out the window with a receptive expression, his hands laced together, nodding as the other man spoke. Just as they entered he glanced over at her and Auba felt as if she'd been stabbed in the heart.

'He said Cochise was the mother!' exclaimed other man, a thickset Saiyan with a red headband. 'Can you believe that! And I told him, but she's been dead for-' then he looked around at the three of them. He had burning eyes and a large scar on his left cheek. Auba thought she had seen him somewhere before.

'Tommo!' he called. 'You said you were going home!'

'Hello, Tommo,' the King said lightly.

'I was,' Tommo muttered. 'But these two Starservants want to speak to King Vegeta about something very important.' The man with the scar stared at Auba and Tuss with a slightly hostile look, but King Vegeta raised one eyebrow slightly and he walked over towards them.

'This wouldn't be about the Field of Ash and Bones, by any chance?' he asked softly. The two Starservants gaped at each other and nodded.

'You're here about the footprints as well?' Auba groaned inside. He already knew what they had come to tell him. But Tuss spoke up, his hands shaking slightly.

'Starservant Auba here said she saw someone walking on the Field of Ash and Bone, sir,' he said. The King looked at Auba again.

'When?' he asked urgently. She stared at him, swallowing nervously.

'Yesterday,' she whispered. 'Sir.' King Vegeta nodded, frowning.

'You didn't, by any chance, see what this person looked like?' he asked.

'No, sir,' she muttered. She clenched one hand into a fist. This was important. She had to stop being so nervous. 'I saw him from a distance. I don't even know if it was a man. I tried to catch up with him, but he had already gone away. Then I went back to the Field of Ash and Bones and there were two rows…'

'Two rows of footprints, leading right to the centre,' the scarred man interrupted. 'I saw them. Nearly fell right out of the sky.'

'I can't believe someone did this,' King Vegeta said, half to himself. 'I mean- it's just unbelievable.'

'Yes!' Auba exclaimed. 'That's how I feel about it, too!' The King turned and squinted at her. Then he said,

'Actually, before you two came I was just about to find a book I can consult on this. I'll just go and get it now.' He disappeared through a small door at the back of the room.

'So this is why you were here?' Tommo demanded, turning to Bardock. 'The Field of Ash and Bone was desecrated and you didn't tell me?' Bardock shrugged.

'I only passed you in the corridor, didn't I? I had to get here first. I didn't have time to run around telling everybody…'

'I'm not everybody, Bardock,' Tommo scowled. Auba remembered where she'd seen the man before. Bardock. He lived at Stiglitz-Bolstein with Lady Tommo, though they weren't married. There was something else about him Auba felt she ought to remember, but whatever it was, it escaped her.

'Yeah, well,' Bardock was saying. 'You know now, don't you?' Tommo appeared to be preparing a sharp retort when King Vegeta re-emerged, carrying a heavy book. It had a dusty grey cover that might have once been black and thick, yellowing pages. He placed it down on a small table at Auba looked at the cover, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck rise. There was nothing but a white ring on the dark cover. This was the _Book of the Hollow Moon_, the famed occult text she had heard so much about.

The other three turned and looked at it with great interest. In fact, Bardock stared at it like King Vegeta had just placed an especially enticing chocolate cake on the table, his eyes wide with lust. Suddenly Auba remembered where she had heard of him before. _Of course_- he was the Psychic Distortionist.

'All right,' King Vegeta said, sitting down next to the little table and pressing his palms together. 'I'm going to use this book to find out _why_ this person could have desecrated the Field of Ash and Bone, what they were hoping to gain. Then it'll be easier to find out who they are.' He raised his left hand over the cover. Immediately the four of them crowded around for a better look.

The King looked up at them reproachfully. 'You mustn't look at this book,' he said. 'Even I'm not supposed to look at it except in an emergency. In fact, I think I'm going to have to ask you all to go and stand facing that wall, covering your eyes. _Especially you_, Bardock. I know you'd love to get a look at this.'

'What?' Bardock yelled in outrage. 'Don't you trust me?'

'Of course I trust you, Bardock,' the King said smoothly. 'I trust you to go and stand beside the far wall. _Now_.' Grudgingly, the scarred man walked to the other side of the room, the others following him. Auba faced the blue-veined, white stone and placed both palms over her face, as if she was in mourning. Even she felt disappointed that the Book of the Hollow Moon was being opened and she could read it. The reflection of a light flickered on the wall for a few minutes and there was a pause.

'You can come back over now,' King Vegeta said. Auba took her hands from her eyes and spun around. The book was lying open, and she stared at the exposed page before she could stop herself. She couldn't make out any words, but there was a picture- a picture of what seemed to be a warped tree.


	10. Anxiety

**Anxiety**

'The book took me straight to this page,' he said thoughtfully. 'It's about how the magical properties of the Field of Ash and Bone. Apparently it _can_ be used for occult purposes, though I suppose they don't publicise that much.'

'Occult purposes?' Bardock asked, raising an eyebrow. 'You mean, magic?' The King shrugged.

'Something like that, anyway,' he said blandly. 'There's a thing on this page- I'm not sure what it is, a prophecy, or a spell, or something… It says the field can be used to bring the dead back to life…' The four of them moved foreword slightly. Auba felt a mixture of wonder and fear. Bring the dead back to life? That would be so good, and yet so wrong.

'But it can't bring the dead back to life. It's confusing. It creates a new life from the body of a dead person, but that life isn't the same as the original. There's a spell here- you take the heart of a dead Saiyan and the blood of a living Saiyan, and bury them in the field by the light of the moon, and in the morning a new Saiyan is born.' This information was greeted by silence. Tuss glanced over at Auba with an expression of mingled disgust and puzzlement.

'This new life,' Tommo said. 'Are they a real person? Or are they a zombie or something?'

'It says here,' King Vegeta said, squinting down at the book. 'Well, this is a really old copy and the dialect's hard to translate- but it says that the spell can only be performed once, once in the history of the world. That if someone is foolish enough to try it, they will create a Saiyan man like any other except in one respect- he will have no soul.'

'So what are you saying?' Bardock asked. 'You think someone tried to restore a dead person back to life and now there's a soulless fighter wandering around…'

'Baby,' King Vegeta said. 'It would be a soulless baby. But of course, the person who walked across the Field may not have done that at all. Maybe they were drunk, or doing it for a dare- it could have happened. Actually, the chances that someone did make a soulless baby are pretty slim. They'd have had to have read it this book for a start, and I have the only copy.'

'Not necessarily,' Bardock said. King Vegeta looked at him, one eyebrow raised. 'They could have put it together by guesswork.'

'Yes,' King Vegeta said irritably. 'But who would have been so utterly stupid- or _insane_- as to try and- wait a minute, didn't you say Paragus had a baby?' There was a silence and everyone turned to Bardock.

'I was talking to him yesterday. He had a really small baby boy with him. He said it was his son, but I asked him a few questions and he backed down and said he found the kid.'

'And his wife died a few weeks ago, didn't she?' the King said. 'Cochise?'

'Paragus was supposed to have gone mad with grief,' Tommo volunteered.

'He always was a bit of a nut,' Bardock said with a slight sneer. 'He used to be Turles' friend, didn't he?'

'Turles lived above his inn in Pistopon for a while,' the King said. 'But that's not what's important here. We need to figure out if Paragus really would do a thing like this. I mean, according to this he'd have had use part of his wife's flesh. He'd have had to dig her up. Would he really have gone that far?'

Auba was beginning to feel slightly out of depth in this discussion. She and Tuss would probably be asked to leave soon, she thought. They'd fulfilled their part in this. Perhaps they should just quietly leave now. She tapped Tuss on the elbow. But then the King turned and looked at her again.

'Do you know Paragus?' he said. Auba paused. She knew _a_ Paragus. But he was such an unlikely candidate for such a grotesque act that she hadn't even considered it was him they were talking about. Even though he had a dead wife. Called Cochise…

'Do you mean Paragus Chandon, sir? The one who owns the inn in Pistopon? Is that who you've been talking about?'

'Yeah, he's got hair shaped like horns,'

'Yes, I know him, Auba said, taking a step back in shock. 'I buried his wife. We're friends now, he visits me sometimes. He couldn't have done these things… Wait- did you say he was friends with Turles?'

'Yes, they were childhood friends,' King Vegeta said dismissively. 'So you don't think he would have done this? No interest in the occult?'

'Actually,' Auba said with great reluctance. 'The last time I saw him he borrowed a book off me. An occult book?'

'Which one?' King Vegeta said.

'The _Dark Goddess_,' Cochise said dismally. 'He didn't tell me why he wanted it. I asked him, but he was very vague.'

'It's an uncommon book,' King Vegeta mused. 'But Jinjur read it and she said it was a load of sensationalism…'

'It's not,' Bardock said. 'I learned a _lot_ from that book. You just have to sift through and find the stuff that's true.'

'Do you think Paragus would have been able to do that, though?' said King Vegeta. 'To figure out a ritual this obscure.'

'He's a pretty smart guy. Desperate, too.'

'But was he desperate enough to rip his wife's heart out of her grave? What do you think, Auba?'

'I don't know, sir,' Auba said. 'He did miss his wife very much. He kept saying really worrying things like he thought his life would be meaningless now. But he was a nice man, very quiet. I just can't imagine him messing around with the Field of Ash and Bone. He was afraid to even look at it.' The King of the Saiyans watched her, maddeningly cool, and finally stood up, closing the book.

'It looks pretty bad. We should call this Paragus in for questioning. Maybe you two Starservants should go now.' It was the signal Auba had been waiting for. She stood up and walked to the door, Tuss blinked as if waking from a daze and hurried after her.

'I'll take you out,' Tommo said, following them. They left the room and entered the maze of rooms and corridors again.

'This is messed up,' she said lowly. 'So you know this guy, Auba?' The Starservant nodded.

'I haven't spoken to him for years myself. I can't really see him getting tangled up in something like this. Then again, they say it's always the quiet ones…'

'Was he really involved with Turles, Lady Tommo?' Tuss asked.

'Yes, they were childhood friends and Turles lived in Paragus' inn for about a year before he staged his little rebellion,' Tommo said. Auba wondered how she managed not to hear about this before.

'But he can't have supported the rebellion,' Tuss said worriedly.

'_No one_ supported the Turles rebellion,' Tommo said with a slight smirk. 'That's why it didn't work.' She led them through the endless corridors and down winding staircases until Auba's legs ached. They had been on the move since this morning. She couldn't travel back to the Tersee District today. They'd have to find an inn. Tommo led them through the crowded hall, down through the garden and past the surly guards. When they were back on the street Tommo handed them a small leather bag of coins.

'Here,' she said. 'Get yourself a place to stay.'

'We can't,' said Auba, realising for the first time she hadn't brought any money.

'You're Starservants, aren't you?' asked Tommo. 'You live on public money. It won't hurt you to take a bit more. Just watch out for those occult innkeepers.' The three of them managed a laugh, and the two Starservants headed down one of the bright streets of Perelandra.

'What was all that about?' Auba said, shaking her head.

'This is going to be something big,' Tuss said. 'Something big and _nasty_.'


	11. Threat

**Threat**

Bardock sailed straight out of the palace window, pulled high into the air, and turned southeast, towards Pistopon. That little weirdo Paragus, he'd known there was something creepy about the baby. Bardock didn't like babies, and the sudden, unexplained appearance of one in Paragus' arms had disturbed him. He didn't like he idea of an infant appearing from nowhere, as his own sons seemed to have done. He'd sold Raditz two months ago- with any luck he would persuade his wife to let him sell the smaller one soon enough. They made him feel things he didn't like to feel.

The air tore around Bardock like fire. In his emotional state, he was already soaring over the woods and lakes of the Tersee District. He could see Pistopon on the horizon, a blob in the blue. Pistopon- he still laughed every time he saw the name. He spiralled down over the city and landed in the dirty cobbled street. He'd timed the landing well. Paragus' inn was only a short walk from here.

He found Paragus on the street by the inn, holding the boy in his arms. He looked up as soon as he saw Bardock coming, a flash of guilt in his eyes. He seemed to be instinctively afraid.

'Paragus,' Bardock said, stopping in front of him. 'I've been sent to talk to you. You've been practicing illegal dark magic.' Paragus' eyes widened and he took a step back, clutching his son closer.

'No,' he said. Bardock knew he was guilty then.

'This child,' Bardock said, pointing to the baby asleep in his father's arms.

'His name is Brolli,' Paragus said sharply.

'This child wasn't born the normal way, was he?' Bardock said, watching Paragus' expression grow more distressed.

'I don't know!' Paragus shouted. 'I found him! I just found him by the road.'

'That's not what you said to me yesterday,' Bardock told him.

'Leave me alone!'

'Paragus, I'm doing this under the command of the King,' Bardock sighed. 'I've got to question you. You're suspected of a serious crime.' Paragus turned and looked behind him as if he was thinking of running away, then seemed to think better of it.

'I haven't done anything wrong,' he said, hanging his head in defeat.

'I'll bet. Did you really dig up your wife's body and cut out her heart?' Paragus slumped against the wall, his face strained with disbelief.

'How did you know?' he croaked.

'King Vegeta figured it out,' Bardock admitted. 'He's a smart guy. And he's got that book to help him.'

'I- I didn't mean to- I only wanted-' Paragus muttered, staring at the ground, the wall, anywhere but Bardock.

'You are so screwed,' Bardock smiled. 'King Vegeta was saying, why would anyone do anything this messed up? And honestly, Paragus, I'm curious myself. Why did you do it?'

'Because of something you wouldn't understand,' Paragus said, glaring at him fiercely. 'Love. I loved my wife.'

'So you dug up her corpse and cut out the heart? How romantic. Sounds like something right out of a half-disk novel.'

'Shut up, you jerk!' Paragus yelled. 'I don't have to explain myself to you!'

'No, but you _do_ have to explain yourself to the High Court,' Bardock said smoothly. 'I think you'd better come with me. And bring… _Brolli_… with you.'

'You won't take him away from me,' Paragus muttered, shaking and looking away. 'He's my son!'

'No he isn't,' Bardock said.

'He is, though!' Paragus moaned. 'Not that you'd understand, of course. Everyone knows what you did to-'

'Let's go,' Bardock snarled, cutting him off. He grabbed Paragus by the wrist. 'They're talking about you right now in Perelandra. They'll probably have the court ready by now.'

'Really?' asked Paragus, his eyes wide with fear.

'Oh, yes,' Bardock said. 'This is a very serious crime. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you got in more trouble than Turles.'

'Leave Turles out of this,' said Paragus, clearly struggling not to show his fear. He looked into Bardock's eyes and wrenched his hand free. 'I stand by what I did. I'm not afraid of you or King Vegeta or anyone else. I'll go to Perelandra of my own will.'

Bardock shrugged. 'You're going to Perelandra, will or not. Let's go.' He levitated ten feet vertically. Paragus paused, and then shot up after him, the baby in his arms. _The soulless monster_, Bardock thought.

They flew higher, reaching the colder air, and the baby began to wake up, mewing slightly and struggling. Paragus held it closer, struggling to maintain a grip. Bardock watched them, slowing himself down to do so, and wondered what would happen if the baby just fell from Paragus' arms. Perhaps it wouldn't _have_ to be an accident… But he let the thought pass. They flew on.


	12. Judgement

**Judgement**

When Paragus arrived in the Imperial Courthouse in Perelandra, Bardock at his side, all his fears and doubts rose to the surface, magnified a hundred times. Deep inside he had known this was lunacy right from the start- but he had gone through with it. Now, looking at all the important faces crowding the courtroom, he faced up to the seriousness of what he had done. He had never been in this much trouble in his life.

Paragus had been in this court once before. That time he had sat in the crowd, waiting expectantly for judgement to fall on someone else- his best friend, Turles. He hadn't liked this place then, and he liked it even less now.

Paragus was led to a small wooden pulpit with a bench, and sat down. He kept Brolli clasped to his chest. Bardock disappeared into the spectator's gallery, a nasty half-smile knifing about his mouth. The place was already packed- there was the king, several important military people, some Starservants, and there in the judge's box was the Lady of Permiat, Tommo herself. How had they found out about this so fast? He had done what he had done only two days ago.

The court came into session as soon as Paragus sat down. It was as if they had all been waiting for him. A secretary came up to him, offering a copy of The_ Book of the White Circle_.

'Do you swear on this Holy Book to tell the truth?' the diminutive man asked. Paragus wet his lips.

'Yes,' he mumbled.

'Then the Goddess' wrath be upon you if you lie,' the secretary said, looking at Paragus severely as if he strongly suspected he would lie anyway, and disappeared.

'Paragus Chandon,' Tommo cried from above him, her normally low voice reaching every corner of the courtroom. 'You are charged with wilfully committing crimes of an occult nature and desecrating the sacred Field of Ash and Bones. How do you plead?' Paragus didn't have to think about it for long. He was a quiet, respectable man. He could never lie after swearing by the _Book of the White Circle_.

'Guilty, my Lady,' he said. A gasp rose in the courtroom.

'You are also charged with mutilating a corpse and creating an unnatural life form,' Tommo continued. 'How do you plead to these crimes?' Paragus drew himself to his feet. He was not afraid of them, he reminded himself.

'I plead guilty to the charge of mutilating a corpse,' he said. 'But I do not plead guilty to the charge of creating an unnatural life form. Brolli is not an unnatural life form- he is my son.' Paragus held the child up proudly, and the court strained to catch a view.

'He is defined as an unnatural life form under Saiyan law,' Tommo said coldly. 'Genetic modification is forbidden on this planet. Do you plead guilty to creating what is in the eyes of the law an unnatural life form?'

Paragus looked at his shoes.

'I plead guilty, my Lady.'

Tommo nodded gravely. 'The defendant had pleaded guilty to all charges. The court will now pause while his punishment is decided.' She left for a room at the back, followed by the jury. As soon as they were gone the room exploded into talk.

Paragus leaned his head on the edge of the pulpit. His fate was out of his control now. Why had he not even tried to defend himself? But he knew the situation was hopeless- he was too good, too law-abiding, he could not lie in court. He wondered what would happen to him now.

At his elbow, Brolli mewed. The child was probably hungry. Paragus wondered if the court would allow him to keep the baby. He shivered at the thought of his son being taken away. Then a worse idea entered his mind. What if they decided to kill the child? But surely they wouldn't do that- there hadn't been an execution on Vegeta for nearly a decade, and Brolli was only two days old. Nevertheless, this thought didn't reassure Paragus. He sat in silence while the jury discussed his fate in another room and the spectators openly discussed his sanity.

'Weren't you part of the Turles rebellion?' said a high voice at his elbow. Paragus lifted his head from the pulpit to see a small woman staring up at him with an expression of great distaste.

'No,' Paragus said gloomily.

'I wouldn't be at all surprised after what you've done,' said the young woman. Her voice was oddly high-pitched. 'You've committed some disgusting crimes. I don't care what the court says- you're going to die for this. You make me sick.' Paragus looked down at her, his misery outweighing his fear.

'I haven't hurt anybody,' he said quietly.

'Rubbish,' the woman said. 'You've created a monster. A child without a soul.'

'WHAT?' Paragus shouted. 'Of course he has a soul!'

'No,' the woman whispered, shaking her head. 'You performed an occult ritual to create a being with no soul. It says so in the Book of the Hollow Moon. And I'll thank you to be a bit more polite. I am the Queen, you know.' She stalked away.

Paragus slumped back in his chair, completely despairing by now. He knew what Queen Jinjur had said was probably true. He had no idea what the ritual he had performed was, and as far as he knew perhaps it was to create a soulless being. He looked down into the bright black eyes of the child in his lap. They didn't look empty and dead to him. Brolli gave a slight smile and Paragus' heart leapt. The boy wasn't soulless.

The door to the chamber in the back opened and the sound of loud arguing spilled out into the room. Lady Tommo resumed her place in front of the courtroom.

'The jury seem to be having a hard time coming to a verdict,' she told the courtroom, brushing her fringe out of her eyes. 'They may need another day to come to a decision.' King Vegeta got up from the crowd and went to her side. They whispered to each other for a few minutes and then disappeared into the back room together. Paragus sighed. This might go on for days. And after they had reached their decision, what fate awaited him? Imprisonment? Exile? Death?

Half an hour of arguing in the backroom and gawking in the courtroom followed, with several people asking to see the soulless baby and being disappointed by its ordinariness. Bardock kept glaring over at Paragus. Paragus was worried the Captain was going to come over and threaten him, but he didn't. Paragus shuddered. He _hated_ the Psychic Distortionist. The tales of his cruelty were well known.

Finally Tommo came out of the backroom, her face slightly flustered. Twenty angry jurors followed in her wake, and a worried-looking King Vegeta closed the door after them. Tommo took the stand again.

'Paragus Chandon,' she intoned. 'You have committed crimes of a despicable, mean, cowardly, disrespectful and imitable nature. You have desecrated a sacred sight and shown wilful disregard for the laws of nature.' Paragus leaned forward in his seat. This wasn't looking good. 'However,' Tommo said. 'You have harmed no one. After extensive debate-' Tommo paused to glare at an old man in the jury- 'We have decided to let you go with a fine of one thousand disks.'

Paragus cheered up immediately. He had convinced himself he would be sent into exile, like Turles. This fine seemed merciful by comparison- but wait- a thousand disks? _A thousand disks_? That would be all his savings! He cursed inwardly. He couldn't afford that… Tommo was saying something else.

'There will be further discussion by government bodies to decide the fate of the child you have created,' she said without emotion. 'You will be contacted with regard to this over the next few days.'

Paragus went cold inside. He couldn't believe that minutes ago he'd been worrying about money. These people might want to kill Brolli now. He held the baby with both arms, chewing his lip.

'Can I go now, My Lady?' he asked.

'You may,' she said, and he wound his way out of the court, pushing past the gawking spectators. As soon as he was outside he rushed down a small alley, hoping to avoid Jinjur, Bardock or anyone else who might want to 'talk to' him. He leaned against the white wall, panting for breath. Brolli squirmed miserably in his arms. The child was hungry and tired. He would take it home now, feed it, and wait to see what would happen next…

'There you are,' a cool voice said behind him. Paragus spun around to face King Vegeta, tall and black-clad, a troubled expression on his face. Paragus hadn't spoken to him since the Brigade days, but Vegeta hadn't changed much- he was a larger, better-dressed version of his former self.

'I meant to talk to you right away,' the King said. 'But the Court came together so fast. People got so excited when they found out what you'd done. Personally, I think they're overreacting.'

Paragus felt his chest lighten. Perhaps King Vegeta had been the one to get his penalty reduced to a fine.

'I think,' the King said. 'That their anger should not focus on how this child was created, but on what it is.' Paragus' mood sank as if someone had hit it over the head with an iron bar.

'Brolli does have a soul!' he protested loudly. 'Sir.' King Vegeta tilted his head to one side and frowned.

'I'm afraid he doesn't, Paragus,' he said. 'It says so in the _Book of the Hollow Moon_. Do you doubt the book?'

Paragus shook his head miserably. 'What- what did the book say, exactly?' King Vegeta stood thinking about this for some time and then said,

'Come with me and I'll show you. I think you need to see this more than anyone else.' Paragus followed him down the street into a narrow passage between the houses, feeling increasingly worried, but slightly excited. He was going to see the _Book of the Hollow Moon_! If only he could have looked at it a few days ago…


	13. Justification

**Justification**

Paragus found himself sitting on a chair in a small room high in the Palace. He wondered where the Queen was, and whether he should tell King Vegeta his wife had sworn to see Paragus die, but he decided against it. The King took out a dusty old book Paragus recognised right away. The King placed his left palm over the cover of the book, which emitted a slight phosphorescence. The pages flickered with a will of their own and turned to a section halfway through the book. When Paragus saw the page the book had turned to, he felt sick. There was a picture of a tree on it, the same tree Brolli had grown on. He hung his head and clasped his hands.

'You recognise the picture?' King Vegeta asked.

'Yes sir,' Paragus mumbled dully.

'A child that springs forth from a tree- a tree of flesh and blood. What a horrible idea. Did you really mutilate your wife's corpse?' Paragus nodded, trying not to think back to that moonlit night.

'How could you have brought yourself to do something like that?' the King asked disdainfully.

'It wasn't easy,' Paragus whispered.

'And how did you even know what to do?'

'I- I read a lot of books, and pieced it together.'

'I'm impressed, Paragus,' King Vegeta said. 'But I'm also horrified. Hundreds of Saiyans accept their relatives are dead every year. Why couldn't you do the same?'

'I'm sorry, sir,' said Paragus, hanging his head. This was what he had been telling himself all the time. The persuasiveness of the argument made him very gloomy.

'And what's worse- this crime is imitable! Didn't you hear what Tommo said in court? Someone else could try this!' Paragus shivered. He didn't like that idea at all.

'So what does it say in the book?' he asked, trying to change the subject.

'Oh here, read it yourself,' the King said. Paragus shifted back in surprise. 'It's all right if it's just this one page.' Paragus looked down at the page, noting the illustration first. That was the tree all right- an accurate illustration of the warped, dark thing that had sprouted. The text was in an ancient dialect, but he could more or less understand it. The heart of a dead Saiyan… the blood of a living Saiyan… united under the moon… they create a third entity.

But what would that third entity be? A person, or a monster? The book used a word Paragus didn't know to describe the Saiyan who would be created.

'What does that word mean?' he asked King Vegeta, pointing to it.

'I don't know,' the King replied. 'It looks like the old word for _soulless_, except with an _s_ instead of a _z_.'

'Maybe not,' said Paragus, who had studied many ancient texts because of his interest in the occult. 'It also looks like the word for _invincible_.' King Vegeta squinted at it.

'You're right, I hadn't noticed that,' he said. 'But anyway, now you've seen this-' he shut the book quickly and pushed it to one side '- do you see what I mean? This child is undeniably a monster.'

'He is not a monster,' Paragus said, indignation giving him courage. 'Look at him!' He held Brolli, who had fallen asleep, up for inspection. The King looked at him politely and turned his attention back to Paragus. 'He's less of a monster,' Paragus said wildly. 'Than- than Bardock.'

King Vegeta's eyebrows shot up and he scowled, but he ignored the comment.

'This child was not born. He was created through an act of dark magic and it is impossible to tell what he will be capable of when he grows up.'

'What do you mean?' Paragus asked, confused.

'This child, on becoming an adult, may present a serious danger to our society.'

_To you_,_ you mean_, thought Paragus. But out loud he said,

'How do you know that? He might not be different to anyone else!' King Vegeta shook his head with a rueful half-smile. He reached out to touch Brolli. As his hand neared the baby, an electric force field blossomed around the sleeping child, like a shining bubble. King Vegeta rested his hand on the bubble for a few seconds and then withdrew it. The force field immediately disappeared.

'See?' he demanded. 'That's _definitely_ not normal. I sensed this as soon as I saw the baby. I thought you did too.' Paragus stared at his son in wonder. How could he not have found out Brolli was capable of something like that?

'You mean he's some kind of super being?' Paragus asked uncertainly.

'I don't know,' the King said. 'We'll find out in time. He could have horrible destructive powers.'

'But that's a good thing, right?' Paragus asked desperately, thinking of the army. The King shook his head.

'He doesn't have a soul,' he said. 'He probably wouldn't have a conscience, either, or inhibitions about killing.'

'Saiyans aren't born with those things!' Paragus argued. 'If he was raised properly, he _would_ have a conscience.' King Vegeta gave Paragus a long, appraising look. Paragus wondered if the man raised his eyebrow slightly to suggest Paragus' ability to raise a child was questionable, or if he was just shocked at Paragus' stubbornness.

'What are you suggesting, then?' Paragus asked. 'That my son is killed?' King Vegeta flinched very slightly- Paragus knew he was thinking of his own child, held prisoner on some planet far away.

'I don't know,' the King said. 'But it seems like great foolishness just to let him grow up regardless.'

Paragus looked at Brolli's sleeping face. 'He's just a child,' he said softly.

'Just a child _now_,' the King reminded him. Paragus looked down at the small, heart-shaped face, trying to imagine Brolli as an adult. He couldn't do it.

'So maybe we could just monitor him, have regular tests…' Paragus said hopefully.

'Perhaps,' said the King. 'But probably not.' Paragus' head sank down as if his neck had turned to water. 'I don't think the child will be killed however,' King Vegeta continued. Paragus looked up again, not daring to hope. 'Not if I can help it. However, we must… come to a decision.'

'But what other options are there?' Paragus asked. 'Besides killing him and keeping watch over him?'

'I don't know,' the King admitted. 'Perhaps someone will come up with a bright idea. You should probably take that baby back home. It must be very tired and hungry by now. Did you really need to take it into court with you?'

'Bardock made me come straight away,' Paragus said resentfully. King Vegeta shook his head.

'You should have left it with someone,' he said. 'It can't be good for him, bringing him into a crowded courtroom like that.'

Feeling more depressed than ever, Paragus got up to leave the room. Behind him, King Vegeta asked,

'What did you say his name was again?'

'Brolli,'

'I thought you said that. Interesting choice. Why did you call him that?' Paragus remembered the story of Vegeta's uncle Brolli Viato, who had lost his place as a prince for attempted murder.

'It means bright,' Paragus told the King. 'Because of his eyes, they're so full of light.'

The King nodded and bent to look, but Brolli's eyes were clamped still shut. He shrugged and Paragus set off into the maze of corridors. On the way down he caught a glimpse of Jinjur at the other end of a corridor, but he dived into an alcove and waited until she'd walked past. As soon as he walked out the door he took off into flight, incurring a yell of anger from the guard at the door.

He flew above the white spires of the city of Perelandra, looking down on the place with a new dislike. The sooner he was back in his inn at Pistopon the better. Poor Brolli hadn't been fed for hours.


	14. Solution

**Solution**

The court could not reach a decision as to what to do with the child Brolli. What they all wanted to suggest, of course, was that he be killed, but none of them could openly condone that. He was a child, after all, and a Saiyan child at that. But what else was there to do with such a being? King Vegeta sat in some of their debates, sitting in a corner saying nothing and looking intensely gloomy.

The first Saiyan to voice what was on all their minds was Bardock. He came into the debating to chamber to meet Tommo one bright afternoon, stood at the back listening to the listless back and forth of ideas for a few minutes, and spoke without invitation,

'Why don't you just kill him?' he said. The others stared in open-mouthed shock.

'He's just a baby!' Tommo said.

'He's not really a child,' Bardock reminded her. 'You said so yourself.' Tommo scowled.

'He looks like a child,' she said lamely.

'But even so, Captain,' an old man at the far end of the table said. 'Who would be prepared to do such a thing? We could not force the Saiyan people to accept such a blot on their conscience.'

Bardock smirked. 'Oh, I'm sure _someone_ would be prepared to do it.' The others reeled back at the implications of this.

'That's not the point,' a young woman said. 'The order to do it would have to be given by the King, and our whole society would be implicated. Anyway, we don't even know what kind of person this child will grow up to be. Who's to say he will be a conscienceless monster?'

'Why take the risk?' Bardock asked. The girl glowered at him.

'But that raises the whole issue of-' began the old man from the back.

'Oh, let's go home, Tommo,' Bardock snapped. 'There's no point in continuing this stupid so-called debate. You're all in agreement, really. You're saying the same thing- _we want to kill a baby, but we haven't got the guts to do it_.' The whole debating chamber stared at him, their eyes wide with disbelief and anger. The room was silent for a full five minutes. Then it burst into furious voices.

'Now, see here!' the old man at the back railed.

'Courage has nothing to do with it!' cried the young woman. Tommo leaned over to Bardock.

'You'd better go,' she muttered. Furious, Bardock stormed out of the debating chamber and out into the street. Something would have to be done about this, he told himself. They were just going to argue about it forever…

He had no better luck with King Vegeta. Of course, Bardock didn't suggest the King of the Saiyans didn't 'have the balls' to kill the baby. He argued that it was the only possible course of action, that allowing a monstrous being like that to grow up would be a terrible risk. King Vegeta pressed his hands together and mused,

'I feel like that King in the story who tried to kill that baby because he was afraid the baby would kill him when he grew up.'

'And the baby _did_ kill him,' Bardock said, trying to remember where he'd heard this.

'Yes,'

'You know why?' Bardock asked, an eyebrow raised.

'He tried to rob an innocent child of life?'

'No, the King died because he didn't do it properly. If he'd killed the baby, he wouldn't have died.' Bardock grinned smugly.

'Oh, goddess,' King Vegeta said, burying his head in his hands. 'I _knew_ you were going to say that.'

'It's true, though,' Bardock protested. 'Why don't you just kill him? _You_ wouldn't have to do it. I could do it. I could kill a baby.' King Vegeta sighed.

'Thanks for the offer, but I don't think your descent into total corruption needs my help.'

'What?'

'Never mind. But please, Bardock- it's a baby. Don't let your standards go this much. You must try to fight your worst instincts.'

'Yes,' Bardock murmured, looking off into the distance. 'But don't you think this time a terrible act might be needed for the greater good?'

'I don't know what to do,' the King said miserably.

'This whole thing about babies,' Bardock said in a lighter tone. 'I mean, why are they so precious because they've just been born? Just because they're young doesn't mean they somehow deserve to live more.'

'It's because they're defenceless,' King Vegeta snarled.

'Lots of people are defenceless compared to us,' Bardock pointed out. 'Look at the Tsufuruns during the war. They were as helpless as babies compared to the Saiyans, but it didn't stop us from killing _them_.'

'Oh, now you're just being ridiculous,' frowned King Vegeta. 'It's not the same thing at all. Babies are babies. And I'm not giving you the order to kill little Brolli.' Bardock bit back an angry response.

'I'd better go, I've got to get back to Stiglitz-Bolstein,' he said. The King nodded, barely looking at him.

'We'll figure out a solution to this,' he said distantly. 'I mean, it's just a baby.'

Bardock flew away through the deep-pink sky, cursing them all. What was wrong with everyone? They were Saiyans. Surely they realised that in a situation like this, one had to get one's hands a little dirty to save oneself a great deal of trouble later on. It was just one baby, after all. It wasn't as if they'd have to kill a whole barn of babies. Bardock smirked, remembering the joke about the pile of dead babies.

He paused in the air halfway to Stiglitz-Bolstein. No one but him seemed willing to do what needed to be done. So maybe he should just take things into his own hands. There would be trouble, of course, but he would weather it. It was just what he was telling the council and King Vegeta- do it, and then face the consequences. He turned towards Pistopon, an unholy gleam in his eye…

Bardock tore into Paragus' inn at Pistopon. He shoved open the door and looked around. Paragus was nowhere to be seen. Bardock went upstairs, rushing through all the rooms, ignoring the shouts and protests of the workers and the customers. But Paragus, Brolli and Mehetabel were gone.

'Damn,' Bardock hissed. They must have anticipated this and run off. But where to? They could be anywhere. Bardock imagined Paragus racing across the hills, holding the monstrous baby in his arms. As if he could run from the Psychic Distortionist… there was nowhere he could go on Vegeta where Bardock wouldn't eventually find him.

Unless he left the planet _entirely_… There was a spaceship port up at West Point. Paragus could be trying to commandeer a lift out of here even now. Then he could speed away to wherever Turles was, and they could join forces. Bardock snarled. It was a long shot, but to his mind it was already a certainty. He made a beeline for West Point, flying more slowly this time. He should conserve his strength in case Paragus struggled.


	15. Nightmare

**Nightmare**

Bardock was right. At that moment Paragus was racing through the spaceship port at West Point, Brolli under his right arm, Mehetabel holding his left hand, trying to figure out how he was going to steal a ride out of here. This planet had been Paragus' home for his entire life, and he loved it no less than any other Saiyan, but he knew if he kept living here his son would eventually be killed.

Slipping past the guards at the gate had been difficult but possible. The interior of the place was a maze swarming with guards, however, and avoiding them was becoming a nightmare. He had to keep diving into alcoves and little rooms, and he had had so many near misses he knew he was going to get caught if he kept this up much longer. He had to get to a spaceship… he could hear them taking off in a distant part of the building, an industrial roaring noise.

Paragus turned a corner and saw three soldiers heading in his direction. He rushed back around the corner and looked for cover. There was a small, dark painted door marked '_Do not enter_' on the left. He pushed it open- mercifully it wasn't locked and shut himself in, pulling Mehetabel after him. He looked around. He was in a dimly lit room, full of shelves of machinery. A huge pile of boxes was stacked against the far wall. Paragus felt a cold breeze coming from somewhere. He shivered slightly, and stepped forwards.

'Daddy, where are the spaceships?' Mehetabel whispered.

'I don't know,' Paragus hissed back. 'Be very quiet, we're not supposed to be here.' He looked around the room, trying to figure out where the slight wind was coming from. It seemed to have its origin behind the boxes. Perhaps there was a secret passage there. It was probably just a ventilation duct, but Paragus wanted to be sure. He put Brolli down and heaved some of the boxes aside. They were monstrously heavy, and seemed to be full of clanging metal things. They went back about three layers but when Paragus pushed aside the last one he saw a long, dark corridor on the other side. Cheering inside, Paragus gathered up his children and pushed through the boxes.

They tiptoed through the corridor for about ten minutes, and reached a small gap, which the wind was coming through. Paragus peered out through gap. On the other side there was a massive room, nearly as big as the hall at the Imperial Palace. Lining the walls were hundreds of gleaming silver things, unmistakably space pods. Paragus' heart lifted. He had found the spaceships. The roaring sound of the pods shooting into space was very loud now. There was a wind blowing through the room, and Paragus knew there must have been a porthole for the spaceships somewhere, but he couldn't see it.

The room was packed. Knots of soldiers, mercenaries, and aliens drifted past. Guards were stationed all along the hall. There was no way anyone could sneak up and take a spaceship without being beaten up. Paragus supposed if he were immensely strong he could have fought all the guards and taken one by force, but he wasn't immensely strong. Especially compared to some of _those_ guys.

Paragus stood frozen in the corridor, contemplating his dilemma.

'I thought I'd find you here,' a coarse voice suddenly said behind him. 'Running away, are you?' Paragus turned around, unwillingly, his stomach churning, and faced a black-clad chest. He looked up, not wanting to see, and saw the scarred face and burning eyes of Bardock. Paragus stepped back, not knowing what to do. He didn't want to run into the heavily guarded room, but what stood in front of him was the stuff of his nightmares.

'You're not holding a child, Paragus,' Bardock snarled. 'You're holding a monster. A monster that would kill you if it had the chance. Stop being such an arse. Give the child to me.'

'Leave me alone!' Paragus shouted wildly. Bardock took a step towards him. Paragus looked around and dived to Bardock's left, slipping under the soldier's arm. He barely managed to hang onto Mehetabel and Brolli. Paragus ran away down the corridor, adrenalin coursing through his veins. His fear gave him strength but not control. His feet slipped on the floor as he ran, keeping the boxes in sight. Bardock followed him, not bothering to run.

'Don't bother, Paragus,' he called out. 'Save your energy.' At that moment Paragus slipped when his foot caught a barbed wire. He found himself on his hands and knees on the tiled floor. Brolli slipped from under his arm and rolled down the corridor, towards Bardock.

Fear such as Paragus had never known in his life, not even in the worst battles of the Saiyan-Tsufurun war, coursed through him. He had just exposed his baby son to the Psychic Distortionist. In his heart, Paragus knew this was the end. There was no way he'd be able to save Brolli now.

Bardock advanced down the corridor, and expression of great malice on his face. He wasn't smiling, but his eyes glowed with a grim satisfaction. He bore down upon Brolli, who looked up at him with an innocent smile on his face.

'He's just a child!' Paragus screamed, unable to stand the physical pain that wracked his heart. 'Please don't hurt him!' Some deep part of Paragus' brain told him that pleading for mercy was cowardly, but every other part of him was desperate to save Brolli. 'Oh, please!' he cried again.

Bardock glared down at Brolli.

'You're pathetic,' he said. He raised his hand high above his head. Light began to draw into it, glowing white energy. Bardock tensed his body for the strike…


	16. End

**Finale**

'And the worst thing is,' King Vegeta said. 'He kept going on and on about how he wanted to kill the baby. Like he'd been waiting for an opportunity to blow up a baby his whole life!'

'He's messed up, alright,' Nappa said casually, chewing a thumbnail. 'The doctors said he was cured, but I think he's still a bit psycho.'

'Yes,' said King Vegeta slightly irritably. 'But he was much more psycho than usual when he talked about this baby.'

'Afraid of it, I guess,' Nappa said. 'Or maybe he's just screwed up about babies in general because of the thing with his children,'

'Yes,' King Vegeta said thoughtfully. 'He is screwed up about babies.' He stared out of the tower window onto the grey city of Horzborg, his lips pressing together thoughtfully. 'He always said he never wanted to have children.'

'So much for that, huh?' Nappa smirked. He leaned back idly. A sudden flash of comprehension came into his eyes.

'Sir,' he asked tentatively. 'Did you give Bardock explicit orders not to kill the baby?'

'I told him I wasn't going to order him to kill it,' King Vegeta said slowly.

'Yes,' Nappa said. 'But did you actually look him in the eye and say that he was under no circumstances to go to Pistopon and kill Brolli?' King Vegeta stood without saying anything for a moment.

'No,' he finally said.

'We should go down there,' Nappa said, rising from his chair. At that moment his office door was ripped open.

'Commander,' a young secretary screamed, bursting in. 'There's been some kind of explosion at the Space Station!' Nappa and Vegeta's eyes met for a few seconds.

'You don't think-' No answer was necessary. They charged through the door and down the stairs.

King Vegeta charged along the cobbled main street of West Point, closely followed by Nappa. The buildings and roads seemed to flicker by like a grey blur, and the King of the Saiyans found himself standing at the doors of the Space Station, barely remembering how he'd got there. He started to mount the stone steps.

Suddenly the world filled with a harsh white light. King Vegeta had barely enough time to raise his arm to protect his eyes when a blast that reduced the steps to rubble emanated from the building. A burning wind howled through the doors and the King was nearly knocked over by the blast. He struggled to keep his footing. Then the light faded, and the sound was replaced by a deafening silence.

'Were we just attacked?' a low voice said behind him. King Vegeta turned, kicking the rubble away from his ankles, and saw Nappa standing about ten feet away, covered with ash.

'No,' King Vegeta said. 'Something happened in that- building…' he gaped at what was left of the West Point Space Station in horror. The whole building was more or less destroyed. Parts of the framework still stood up, but the edifice had been mostly reduced to rubble. Soldiers were dragging themselves out of the mess, covered in blood, pipes were spilling water and small fires were starting to break out. People began to pour out of the buildings around.

King Vegeta continued to gawk at the horrendous mess in front of him until Nappa came up and prodded him on the shoulder.

'So what in hell do you think just happened there? Gas leak?'

'Get a grip,' the King snapped, snapping out of his shocked state. 'It was Bardock. In fact- yes, I can sense his presence here.'

'You can what now?'

'Just help me find him, OK?' They picked through the rubble, tossing boulders aside, until King Vegeta found an arm running with blood. He yanked it out of the destroyed remains of the Space Station to find an unconscious Bardock on the end of it, his clothes tattered and his hair standing raggedly on end. King Vegeta slapped Bardock awake. He had no patience for kindness at that moment.

Bardock groaned and blinked his eyes painfully.

'What happened here?' King Vegeta asked as soon as he saw Bardock had regained consciousness. Bardock looked around in shock, pulling himself to a sitting position, trying to take in the mess around him.

'I didn't do it!' he blurted out.

'_Then what happened here_?'

'I- he- Paragus did this!' Bardock yelled.

'What?' King Vegeta yelled incredulously. 'I saw that blast. Paragus did _not_ do this.'

'Where is Paragus, anyway?' asked Nappa, appearing from the right. 'I thought he was in Pistopon.'

'Oh, all right,' Bardock said, his chin sinking into his chest. '_Brolli_ did it. The baby.'

'WHAT?' the two men yelled at once.

'Now I know you're on something,' Nappa sneered. Bardock glared up at him.

'You said he had unimaginable potential for destructive power. I guess you were right?'

'I meant in twenty years, not now!' King Vegeta yelled. 'By the White Goddess, Bardock, you can't be serious! Did that baby really do this?'

'I'm sorry,' Bardock said miserably. He knew already what this meant for them all. An implacable, invincible enemy, daily growing stronger…

'Damage report!' a small secretary said, running up to the three of them. 'We have only three fatalities so far, all aliens,' the three Saiyans sighed with relief. 'Unfortunately,' said the secretary. 'We must report that nearly all the equipment contained within the Space Station was destroyed.'

'_Damn_ it!' yelled Nappa. 'That was our whole budget for this year!'

There was an awkward silence.

'But you bought insurance, didn't you Nappa?' King Vegeta asked, slowly, worriedly. The Saiyan Commander stopped dead, a look of terrible realisation on his face. He said nothing.

'I said, _but you bought insurance, didn't you, Nappa_?' King Vegeta asked more insistently, leaning towards him. Nappa continued to say nothing.

'I think it looks like he _didn't_ buy insurance,' Bardock piped up nastily.

'Nappa, you _bought insurance_, didn't you?' King Vegeta snarled, his voice terrible. '_Please_ tell me you bought insurance.' Nappa slowly shook his head, staring forward as if in a daze.

'There wasn't enough money left in the treasury for insurance,' he said dismally. 'We spent it all on the Space Station.'

'DAMN IT TO HELL!' screamed the King, slamming his fist into a boulder, which disintegrated. 'All our money gone for nothing, and on top of that, I've been bested by Paragus!'

The little secretary stared in horror. 'I'm sorry sir?' he said. 'You think a man called Paragus is responsible for this?'

'Yes, I do,' the king said. 'And I- where is he?' The four of them were suddenly silent, glancing around them. Without warning, an undamaged space pod burst from the rubble about twenty feet away. King Vegeta caught a glimpse of Paragus' pointy hair in the monitor before it blasted away into the air.

He immediately flew straight up, catching up with the pod in seconds. He saw Paragus' face through the window, with the infamous Brolli in his right arm and another child at his left. Paragus gazed out at him with an expression of apprehension. King Vegeta shook his fist furiously.

'_Paragus_!' he howled. But the space pod blasted up into the pink sky and out of sight. Cursing inwardly, King Vegeta descended onto the rubble.

'So he's running away,' he said furiously. 'I wonder where he thinks he's going.'

'Turles,' Nappa and Bardock said instantly.

'Great,' King Vegeta muttered, burying his head in his hands. 'That is _just_ what my life needs right now. The Space Station's just been destroyed, it wasn't even insured for Goddess' sake, I've been made to look like a complete gimp by Paragus, I'm covered in ash and now this. What a terrible day.'

'You think you've got it bad?' Bardock said dismally. 'I just got beaten up by a baby.'

**The End**


End file.
